Case Study – L-D Tool & Die

Introduction L-D Tool & Die (LDTD) is a small manufacturer in Ontario who specializes in designing andmaking customized moulds as per customer’s requirements. LDTD was found by LaurieDickson in late 1980s. Since its inception, the company has continuously serving itscustomers by providing quality products and services. LDTD has developed a loyal customers throughout the years in business. The main services of LDTD are transforming synthetic resins and plastic material into a wide range of ? nished products, parts for other manufactured goods, and intermediate products consisting of shapes and forms made bya variety of fabricating methods.

LDTD’s customers are mainly found in packaging construction, automotive industry, and plastic industry. These industry account for nearly eighty percent of the company’s output. As the demand increase, more workers are needed to be recruit, despite the vacated andretired personnel. LDTD is looking to ? ll many skilled workers position including moulddesigner, computer numerically controlled (CNC) machine programmer, CNC machineoperator, mould makers, and mould making assistants. However, as skilled workers areshort of supply in the Ontario area, LDTD has facing a challenge in ? nding experiencedskilled workers to ? l the opening positions. In addition to the shortage of adequate human resource, LDTD also facing technological changes dif? culty. Nevertheless, since itsinception, LDTD has never had a proper recruitment and selection process in place norhad an individual responsible for solving human resource (HR) related issues to ensure thatthey have hire quality workers, as well as, ensure that HR related problems were solved. These problems combine has created a crisis that LDTD can no longer afford to look over. LDTD must now ? nd a way to recruit more skilled workers in order to meet their customer’s contract. Problems Defination

Shortage of Skilled Workers As customers’ demands increase, LDTD requires more skilled moulds makers to performspecialized tasks to meet customer’s requirements. However, the rapid growth in theindustry has caused a shortage of skilled workers in Ontario area. The shortage is theresult of cutbacks in apprenticeship training during the economic slowdown. However, asthe economy starts to pick up, the number of skilled workers has already been in shortsupply. In addition, Dickson does not believe that graduates from technical college tradeprogram process necessary skills set or experience required to have an immediate effecton the business.

Another reason of skilled workers shortage is due to an unsounded working environment such as exposure to noise, hazardous materials, and unsafeequipments. They also required lifting and carrying parts of up to twenty-three kilograms,as well as, many other strenuous physical activities. These reasons combine have causedthe number of college enrollment for this industry to decrease. Without skilled workers, LDTD will not be able to increase it production capacity or expandtheir business to meet the corporate short-term and long-term goals. In addition, LDTDcould also loss potential revenue, as they are unable to meet the market demands.

Technological Changes Design and manufacturing technologies has become major factors for customer toconsider their supplier. With rapid changes in technologies, LDTD’s customer’srequirements have also changed. Customer is now require more computerize designs andprecise manufacturing for their products. This new requirements also require workers withnew skill set such as knowledge in computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aidedmanufacturing (CAM). Although, LDTD’s workers are expertise with a lot of experiences inmoulds making, they do not have knowledge or skills in the new technology that require bytheir customers.

These problems create a gap in LDTD’s skills inventory and couldultimately result in product quality and decrease in sales. Although, these skills set could be acquired from new graduates from any technicalcollege, the new graduates are usually lack of practical experience required that wouldotherwise enable them to provide immediate TDM business impact. Without skilledworkers who initially had experience with this new technology, it becomes moreproblematic for smaller corporations like LDTD. Recruitment and Selection Processes Recruitment and selection processes are also part of LDTD’s problems.

With no solid plan,process, and responsible personnel, LDTD is unable to meet their demand for skilledworkers. Dickson is currently responsible for recruiting new employees but withoutsuf? cient devotion of, both, time and money, Dickson is unable to successfully recruitnecessary skilled workers, as they want. As a small company, Dickson is involves in manyaspects of the company and rarely has time to spare on human resource issues. It iscommon for small company such LDTD to have a few management staffs and each staffsresponsible for more than one department.

However, as the company keep growing, itbecome problematic for a management staff to handle multiple segment of the business. In LDTD case, because Dickson is handle multiple aspects of the business, all recruitmentis done only if needed and is usually rush the process. The result of rushing recruitmentprocess is that the company could not recruit enough skilled workers. Another recruitmentproblem as describe in the case study is that LDTD lack of methods to advertise theiropening position and the job information. Traditional recruitment methods use by LDTD,such as newspaper advertisement and word of mouth, are not suf? ient as it limit their scope of viewers or possible applicants. In addition, during this shortages of skilledworkers, the chances of getting an employee quickly and ef? ciently are decreased. Alternative Solutions and Analysis Shortage of Skilled Workers In order for LDTD to acquire necessary skilled workers during the shortage in Ontario areais to hire from other area. This could be done through a recruiting ? rm or widen the searchareas to other province or other country such as United States. By hiring recruiting ? m,Laurie can assure that he will get a quality personal in a considerable time period as therecruiting ? rm usually has applicant’s skills inventory information on ? le. They can simplycompare the requirement from LDTD with the skills set each applicant has. This screeningprocess allows LDTD to save time during recruitment. Similarly, by widen the search areas,LDTD can increase the number of possible job applicants. This gives LDTD more choicesto get the best from all the applicants. In other words, the more choices to choose, thebetter the selected choice. Although, this alternative may seem to be quick and essproblematic for LDTD, it does not guarantee that LDTD will receive personnel with enoughexperience and quali? ed skilled set in the short period of time. It also introduces an extraexpenses to the company as they hire a recruiting ? rm. Alternatively, LDTD could cooperate with technical college and university to implement awork-experiences program that will provide students with an opportunity to gain hand-onexperiences. By offering a job opportunity for students to work at the company, LDTD isable to acquire newer technological skills set they needed at lower cost.

Although, thesestudents may require more supervision and expertise from experienced workers and maynot have an immediate effect on the business but in long-term, LDTD will bene? t fromthese effort of improving the quality of new graduates. With the improve quality of newgraduates, LDTD could eventually recruit these students as they are experienced workers. However, this alternative takes a lot of time and effort, as well as, cooperation from theindustry and educational institutes to succeed. Technological Changes Technological changes are also an issue of contention for LDTD.

With ever increasingamount of innovations appearing, services, machinery and business operations arecontinually changing. In order to mitigate the diminishing skill sets of the company, Lauriecan employ more new graduates from Algonquin Technical College (ATC). By hiring newgraduates LDTD stands to gain workers with updated skills, which can be applied to manyaspects of the business. New workers also require a lower salary allowing for more initialcapital to be gained by LDTD. Additionally new staff can pass on their knowledge to olderemployees lacking the knowledge and skills set of new technologies.

Moreover, Lauriecould implement a program, which allows current workers to continually update their skills with ATC. This in turn will ensure employees have the required skills for their position (anddevelop immense knowledge of their work place and position), and will removing the needfor layoffs. This in turn will keep staff moral high, allowing for higher productivity in theorganization. Furthermore, because of LDTD’s use of ATC and its services, this could beconsidered a catalyst for a relationship between the two organizations. From thisrelationship it maybe possible for ATC to develop and implement courses or programsspeci? to the needs of LDTD, further ensuring all required demands are met. Problemsdo exist with this alternative for one; new graduates would require training, putting a strainon resources, time, and income. Secondly, new employees may more readily relinquishtheir job, if they deem it unsatisfactory. Thirdly, educating current employees will requireproviding time off for the individuals, as well as paying for tuition and other associatedexpenses, taking away from the overall pro? tability of the company. Recruitment and Selection Processes Admittedly, Laurie Dickson and his partner and of? e manager Dave Tate have had little orno time available towards the human resource (HR) aspect of their business. Since LDTDis currently expanding and in order to satisfy current customer production demands, aswell as, to attain more production capability, LDTD must hire three to four more mouldmakers along with a CNC machine operating and a CNC machine programmer. Analternative that Laurie has available to him is to hire a full time HR staff member. Throughhiring a professional HR staff, Laurie has an employee with the knowledge and skills setneeded to recruit more workers ef? iently and effectively. Thus giving him more time toconcentrate on other aspects of the business. Furthermore, a dedicated HR staff membercan streamline current hiring and interview practices by developing recruitment andselection processes, as well as, de? ning speci? c HR parameters such as job descriptionand job speci? cation. Moreover, to handle labour shortages forecasting and pre-emptiveemployee hiring (hiring employee’s before the labour constraints become a factor). This inturn will eliminate down time incorporated in the ? nding and training of the new hire.

Reciprocally, by hiring a new HR staff member, more income would be spent towards theemployee’s salary and training; as well as towards any new technique, process, orbusiness system. However, by hiring HR staff can result in hired employees that do notmeet the expectation of Laurie or current employees, which could cause internal con? ictamong staff members (leading to decreased productivity). Moreover, the recruitment andselection process done through HR department maybe slow and will not meet the currentneeds of skilled workers in this shortage situation.

Alternatively, LDTD could considers explore new recruitment technique such as internet jobposting. As LDTD require more computer-related skills workers and machine operators, itis logical to think that workers who use internet will know how to operate a computer. Theinternet also allows the company to make more people aware of the job opening as it canbe accessed from anywhere in the world. The job posting website such as Monster. caallows the company to post more details about job such as duties and responsibilities,working conditions, and quali? ation required. On the down side, the search area maybe too broad that the company could not afford to relocate the applicant or their may be legalissues for doing so. Implementation Shortage of Skilled Workers First of all, in order to recruit more skilled workers, LDTD has to identify their need for their personnel. These can be done by creating job description and job speci? cation that lay outthe requirement of the job positions such as quali? cation, responsibility, and workingconditions. Next, LDTD must ? nd a trust worthy recruitment ? m and negotiate the term ofrequirement. Once, the agreement has been agreed by both, LDTD and the recruitment? rm, LDTD can now prepare the interview questions where they will be used to interviewcandidates send from recruitment ? rm. Once all the candidates have been interviewed,LDTD mush now decide which candidates they would like to hire and con? rm with therecruitment ? rm. The recruitment ? rm will contact the successful candidates and informthem about the result of the selection process and con? rm if the candidate still want thejob.

Once the candidates accept the job offer, LDTD could set up an orientation for newhires and request for employees’ information to process HR related tasks such as payrolls. In the mean time, in order to keep the supply of the skilled workers at a necessary level,LDTD can contact technical college that they believe in educational quality to set up ameeting with the academic board. In the meeting, LDTD can now indicate the skills setthat they would required for new graduates and purpose a work-experience program thatcould help improve the quality of the new graduates.

LDTD and the technical college mustbe committed in improving the quality of education for students, as well as, workingclosely together to ensure that all skills set require are ful? ll. Once the student is hire, LDTDcould place him side-by-side or work closely under a experienced skilled workers. Thisway, not only they can learn from each other but also allows them to build a relationshipbetween each other and between LDTD and the college. As students complete his or herwork-experience program, LDTD mush provide feedback on the students to the college tohelp continuously improve the quality of the program.

Nevertheless, the college must alsoprovide a response to LDTD’s feedback as to what will be improved and how to improve it. Technological Changes In order to ful? ll the need of new technological skills, LDTD could hire new technical collegegraduates who already have skills set for the job. However, because new graduates arevery unlikely to have necessary experiences, training will be required. LDTD must create atraining plan that will provide, both, knowledge and experience on tasks that new hires willrequire to do. These training will be conducted by experienced skilled-workers.

At the endof the training, trainers must collect feedback of the training from trainees. This information will be used to improve the training process, as well as, the quality of the training. Thesetraining can also be used to trained experienced workers for new skills set. Recruitment and Selection Processes In order to implement a solid recruitment and selection process, LDTD must committedtheir resource to HR department, by de? ning a person to responsible for HR related issues. To do so, LDTD could hire a HR profession to direct the HR department and provide aclear HR vision that correlation with the company’s goals.

First, LDTD must de? ne the skillsset needed for HR position. Once the skills set has been de? ned, LDTD can now advertisethe job opening to public. These should be done in a way that the advertisement would beseen by target audience. For example, this job advertisement must be published in anewspaper or magazine that is related to human resource management. After go throughseries of interviews and selection process, LDTD now has HR personnel responsible for allHR related issues. These HR personnel must now de? ne a solid plan for recruitment andselection process.

For example, what method should be used to advertise job openingand how to conduct an interview to maximize the ef? cient of selection process? Once theprocess has been de? ned and implemented, HR personnel must collect feedback on thenew hires. These can be feedback from their supervisor, colleague, or themselves. HR cannow use this information to improve the recruitment and selection processes, as well as,the quality of the new hires. Conclusion Shortage of skilled workers may seem to be the biggest problem for LDTD but theproblem is also related to recruitment and selection processes.

By hiring HR personnel,LDTD can bene? t from a solid recruitment and selection processes that enable them torecruit higher quality personnel. Moreover, HR personnel can also provide advises forlabour shortage as well as, methods of job addvertising. In addition, cooperating withtechnical college and implementing a work-experience program to help improve the qualityof the new graduates, LDTD can bene? t from up-to-dated skills set at lower expenses. Finally, by implementing these solutions, LDTD can remain competitive, increaseproductivity, and expand their business to the next level.